


A Happy Irregularity

by icarus_chained



Category: Sapphire and Steel
Genre: Episode Fix-it, Friendship, Gen, Happy Ending, Original Character(s), Post-Series, Prompt Fic, Reconciliation, Rescue, Reunions
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2015-05-20
Updated: 2015-05-20
Packaged: 2018-03-31 12:05:26
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 812
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/3977386
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/icarus_chained/pseuds/icarus_chained
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>Better late than never. In the aftermath of Assignment #6, Silver comes to the rescue, with a little help.</p>
            </blockquote>





	A Happy Irregularity

**Author's Note:**

> Again, written for the [Obscure & British Commentfest 2015](http://lost-spook.livejournal.com/465693.html). The prompt wanted Other Elements from S&S. I thought that [Bismuth](http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Bismuth) might be cool: Symbol [Bi], diamagnetic (meaning can levitate in a magnetic field), low thermal conductivity (insulator), beside Lead in the periodic table, silver-white but oxidises with a spectacular multi-hued iridescent sheen. So. Lead's punk-styled void-travelling sister (levitation + insulation = telekinetic spaceship)? That works, right?
> 
> I also figured I'd put it as a solution to Assignment #6, because why not?

"... Steel? I think I see something."

Steel looked up from an idle asymmetrical chess game using salt & pepper shakers and the gingham squares on the tablecloth. The tablecloth instead of the chessboards for defiance, and asymmetrical because irregularity was their only defence against the entropic grinding of monotony. They would not give in to the void without at least an attempt to fight. Sapphire, who had been taking a break to stand at the window, gestured for him to join her.

"Look," she said, when he came up alongside her. She pointed out into the static field of stars, leaning easily back against him. "Just there. It looks like movement. You see it?"

He didn't, at first. The thought occurred to him that he wouldn't, that this would be the first sign of isolation altering their perceptions. But then. After a second, there, yes, right where she'd said it would be. Something. Almost certainly. Motion in a static field, undeniable.

"I see it," he said, one hand coming up unbidden to rest on her shoulder. "What is it? We're outside the void. What could traverse ..."

He stopped, the answer occurring even as he asked the question, and Sapphire laughed in pure and sudden delight beside him. Even before that distant speck of movement came into visual range, they both already had an idea what they would see.

And they weren't wrong, either. It looked like a soap bubble at first. The most bizarre, incongruous thing, but they already knew what lay behind the appearance. The iridescent shimmering of a spherical forcefield drifted towards them at speed, and eventually came close enough that they could see through it, to the two figures at its centre.

Silver was crouched down, several of his knick-knack gadgets gathered close against him, something that looked for all the world like a dowsing rod attached to a box in his hands. Ranged above him, her knees pressed against his sides to hold him against the emptiness and her arms spread wide to maintain the forcefield, a dark figure dressed in garish scarves over a silvery pantsuit grinned fiercely out at them. Bismuth. Lead's void-travelling little sister. She had her brother's grin, which Steel had always found rather aggravating. He didn't suppose he could complain about now, though.

"Hello there," Bismuth called when they came close enough, with something like Lead's perpetual cheer as well. "Silver seemed to think that you two could use a ride?"

Steel opened his mouth, to say something entirely inoffensive of course, and Sapphire elbowed him sharply before he could get a word out. She stepped past him towards the door, holding out her hands in welcome to the others.

"Why don't you come in?" she said, smiling warmly at them both. "I think we'd be delighted to discuss that with you." 

Bismuth came with a will, locking her forcefield in against the door and appearing more than willing to step through. Silver, though, hesitated. She couldn't step in without him, not with the field under her control. She paused in the doorway, staring impatiently down at him.

Silver didn't look at her, though. He looked at Sapphire, for a very long moment, and then ... then he looked at Steel. Steel wasn't entirely sure what he was supposed to read in that look. Some uncertainty. Some apology. Some annoyance. The smallest hint of pride. A larger one of worry. All of it pointed at Steel, not Sapphire. How very odd.

"I, ah," Silver started, gathering his gadgets in close and smoothing a nervous hand down the front of his waistcoat. He still didn't step through, for all the glare Bismuth was sending him. "I'm sorry I'm late? It took a while to hone in on you. And to get hold of Bismuth. And to avoid the trap in the first place, of course. So, ah. Well. Here we are?"

{Steel,} Sapphire murmured softly, inside his head. Gently. Always gently. And reproachfully. Steel ignored it this once. He intended nothing he could be reproached for.

"Get in the door, Silver," he said, holding out his hand as though to haul the specialist through if necessary. "I think we can all agree that it was better late than never in this case, don't you?"

Neither apology nor forgiveness, you see. But then, neither was necessary. Sapphire smiled at him, Bismuth shook her head in long-suffering aggravation, and Silver, at long last, took hold of Steel's hand and let himself be tugged into the room. They had an escape to arrange, after all. They had a void-travelling element, a homing beacon of Silver's design, and all of Steel and Sapphire's rather fervent will to make use of them.

This part, Steel thought, would not be monotonous at all. But then, nothing involving any plan of Silver's ever was.

The specialist always had had that to recommend him.


End file.
